


Dance like it's 1698

by HobbityHan



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-13
Updated: 2016-11-13
Packaged: 2018-08-30 18:32:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8544520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HobbityHan/pseuds/HobbityHan
Summary: Laura signed them up for ballroom dancing classes.





	1. The Class

She didn’t tell Carmilla of course because where was the fun in that and bribed her into coming along with the promise that if it wasn’t fun Laura would let Carmilla be in charge of their netflix choices for the next week. 

So, they found themselves standing on the edge of a hall in a community centre, the youngest in the room by several decades and with even Laura wondering if this had been a good idea as she looked at the dozen couples of men and women around them, all in their fifties and sixties.

The teacher introduced herself and welcomed everyone to her new eight week beginners course where she was going to take them through the basics of the most popular dances and if they enjoyed it they could join her regular beginners class that ran on a Thursday evening. She asked if anyone had come by themselves and a man and two women put their hands up, she nodded and then looked at Carmilla and Laura.

“I’m sorry girls, we don’t have any spare men, do you mind dancing with each other?”

“No, no we don’t mind,” Laura squeaked while Carmilla put her hand to her forehead in despair.

Under the cover of the teacher sorting out how the three single dancers could rotate with each other Carmilla hissed at Laura, “Sure you don’t want to go to a class with spare men cupcake?”

“Shut up,” Laura hiss back, struggling to hold back a laugh. Those around them in the class gave them bemused looks. 

“Now, the easiest dance to start with is the Waltz,” the teacher said.

“Yes,” muttered Laura happily

“I could teach you to waltz at home”

“Shush”

“Now, gentlemen behind me,” the teacher said, moving into the middle of the hall and gesturing behind her.

“Crap, which one of us is the man?” Laura asked.

“Well, that’s a little offensive,” teased Carmilla.

“Shut up. We have to decide which of us is the man,” Laura said, her tone getting more urgent as the men in the room shuffled to follow instructions.

Carmilla laughed, “Or leader and follower and since I learned the follow steps when I learned to Waltz why don’t you take the lead?”

“Seriously?”

“Go lead cupcake,” Carmilla said, gesturing to the middle of the room.

Laura grinned and scurried happily off to the middle of the room to stand on the end of the line of men. She looked even more out of place as she turned to grin inanely at Carmilla and give her a thumbs up. 

Carmilla shook her head and avoided the looks of the women left at the side of the room with her.

“Right, gentlemen,” the teacher began, “We always start with our left foot. Now, copy me and we step forward with our left foot.” There was a shuffle as the gaggle behind her did, Laura concentrating hard on not only the step, but how the teacher was shifting her weight. “Then, we step to the side with our right foot and finally close our left foot to our right foot.” She spoke slowly and moved slowly and the men behind her, and Laura, copied her.

“Then we do it again,” she repeated the steps and the group behind her did, “And again….and again and we go a little quicker and we waltz our way down the room, one two three, one two three, one two three.” There were some missteps as she sped up, but not from Laura who followed the basic steps exactly. 

“Right, men, practice that while I take the ladies through their steps.”

The men shuffled off to the side of the room as the women took their positions up behind the dance teacher, Carmilla wondering why she was doing this. The women’s steps were the same, except stepping backwards with their right foot before stepping to the side with their left and then closing with their right. Carmilla shuffled through the motions of the steps, not needing to put much thought into what she was doing.

“Now, let’s try that together,” the teacher said, “spread out round the room with your dance partner.”

Carmilla turned, looking for Laura and they took each others hands as they found a gap on the floor and faced each other.

“Having fun cupcake?” Carmilla asked.

“I am actually,” Laura said.

“Gentlemen, you want to face your partner and put your right hand on their back, to their left hand side, just on the ribs. You don’t need to hold them tight, just place it there.”

Laura followed instructions, avoiding what she was sure would be mockery if she looked into Carmilla’s eyes.

“Ladies take your left hand and place if on the gentleman’s bicep, again, you don’t need to hold on. Now gentlemen hold up your left hand to the side and ladies place your right hand into the gentleman’s.”

Laura did, finally looking at Carmilla as she placed her hand into Laura’s, Carmilla was smirking, but not with mockery, but something like delight. She used her hand on Carmilla’s back to pull her a little closer so their midriff’s were in contact. 

“Are we okay ladies?” The teacher said, interrupting their moment as she came round checking their holds. “We usually have the taller partner dance the gentleman’s steps in same sex pairings,” she suggested.

“We’re okay this way” Carmilla said.

“Of course and couples often find it easier to dance a little further apart when they start so they can glance at their feet and not worry about kicking each other.”

“Thank you for the tip,” Laura said, genuinely, but not loosening her pressure on Carmilla’s back. 

“You’re just going to have to put up with it if I stand on your toes,” Laura said to Carmilla as their teacher breezed off to go correct other couples.

“I think I’ll cope,” Carmilla said with a smile.

Their teacher got the classes attention and counted them in, on the right beat Laura stepped forward, finding that Carmilla had of course stepped back, they both stepped to the side, closed their feet and repeated as the teacher counted one, two, three at the side of the room. Laura felt Carmilla putting a rise and fall into her steps and mimicked her. The group went the length of the room and then the teacher stopped them to talk them through how to progress anti-clockwise round the room. She emphasised that this being the gentleman’s job and joked about being sure that this was the only time when the women were going to actually let the men be in charge instead of just thinking they were in charge. Laura stayed in hold with Carmilla during the instructions and tested out the teacher’s instructions to steer Carmilla with pressure from her right hand on Carmilla’s back. She was oblivious to the fact that every other couple in the room had stepped apart to listen, but Carmilla wasn’t going to point it out to her.

“Right, we’ll put some music on,” the teacher said, going to the sound system at the end of the room. 

Carmilla adjusted them so they were back on the right line.

“Hey, I’m supposed to be steering,” Laura protested with a smile.

“I will let you steer,” conceded Carmilla, “As long as you’re steering us in the right direction.”

“Is this dance class becoming a metaphor for our relationship?” Laura said, putting a mock frown on.

“Oh I hope not,” said Carmilla emphatically, looking around the room.

The music came on and the teacher counted them in. They started dancing, doing the same three steps down the room and Laura gently steered them around the end of the room, still copying the rise and fall that she could feel Carmilla adding. The same three steps repeated was not much of a dance, but they were torso to torso, bodies moving in sync, hands warm in each other and when they bumped knees or stubbed toes they laughed and apologised to each other and it was fun. 

The teacher took the leaders and followers separately again to teach them a basic quarter turn to intersperse with their basics and then they danced again the music, alternating between basics and quarter turns and stuffing up more than they had the first time, but starting again when it went wrong and still laughing.

And then the class was over and Laura said thanks to the teacher and that they’d see her next week.

“That was fun,” Laura said as they left.

“It was,” Carmilla conceded, “Waltzing is a little more fun when both partners are trying to do the same steps at the same time.”

“Which we were doing most of the time, so success. You want to go back next week?” Laura asked.

“Sure,” said Carmilla.

“Is the lack of enthusiasm affected or genuine?” Laura asked.

“I had fun cupcake, I enjoyed dancing with you. I wouldn’t have picked to be waltzing in a room with a load of old people, but I can make that sacrifice for the fun of waltzing with you.”

“So noble,” teased Laura.

“I want to show you something later though.”

“Oh?”

“It will be a surprise, I just need a bit of time to set it up, so, after dinner?”

“Sure,” said Laura, curious, but willing to wait.

“And can I borrow your laptop?”

“Carm...when are you going to get your own laptop?”

“You’re going to stop letting me borrow yours?”

“No...but...”

“There isn’t a problem then.”


	2. Private Lessons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carmilla gives her own dancing lessons

Carmilla disappeared as soon as they got home and reappeared at dinner time as promised. They ate and Laura did not ask any questions about what Carmilla had planned for after dinner, but followed her obediently to the gym down the road and then into one of the rooms used for fitness classes.

“So?” Laura asked, once Carmilla had shut the door, she looked round the room, but apart from her laptop and some chairs at the side of the room she couldn’t see anything that suggested a surprise.

“The waltz is the oldest of the ballroom dances,” Carmilla said, stepping towards Laura and holding out her hand. Laura took it and they stepped into hold, but closer this time as they had the privacy. Carmilla stepped backwards and they did a few waltz steps. “I learned several dances before my first ball, only the waltz is still danced now, but what we learned today is actually the slow waltz,” Carmilla said, lifting her arm to turn Laura under it, who did turn, but looked intently at Carmilla as soon as she could.

“There’s more than one waltz and we learned the wrong waltz?”

Carmilla, smiled, “I know the slow waltz, but the waltz I learned back then is more commonly called the Viennese waltz now.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Well, the Viennese waltz is faster and there are a lot more turns, but that’s the surprise, I thought we could learn a Viennese waltz tonight. I can teach you.”

“That sounds fun,” Laura said with a smile.

“Do you want to lead, or follow?” Carmilla asked.

“You know how to do both?” Laura asked, Carmilla nodded. “You know what you’re doing, want to lead?”

“If you’re sure, come on then,” Carmilla said, stepping into the middle of the room so they had space. “I worked out a short sequence earlier,” she said. 

Laura went and stood next to Carmilla, looking intently at her feet. “Just copy me,” Carmilla said. Laura nodded and did, mirroring Carmilla’s footsteps as she stepped back and to the side. “Copy the toe and heel steps as well,” Carmilla said, “Like this, so stay on your toes here and put your heels down here, heel down first here, but toe down first here.”

“Wait, so like this,” Laura said, copying.

Carmilla nodded, “Now I’ll go slow, just keep following.” She continued the steps and Laura followed her like a shadow, they paused when she went wrong and reset back to the beginning frequently, but Laura listened intently to Carmilla’s instructions and corrected her steps and was beginning to feel like this wasn’t that hard after all when Carmilla said.

“Right, now we need to go faster,” and took off at what seemed like a rate of knots to Laura, who tried to follow and stopped.

“Maybe not that fast,” she said, laughing, but annoyed at herself. 

Carmilla came back, and held out her hand, “Okay, too fast, we’ll go again.”

“How fast do I need to be able to do it?”

“Pretty fast. There’s no rush.”

“No, I want to be able to get this.”

“You will, we’ll just keep doing it until you get it.”

So they did it again, not as fast as Carmilla had just done it, but faster than before and they did it again and again and Laura realised after a few repetitions that Carmilla was steadily increasing the speed each time and sometimes Laura stumbled and forgot what she was doing and sometimes Carmilla corrected her, but it felt fun and it got quicker and quicker until they were both out of breath and Carmilla called a break.

Laura put her hands on her hips and got her breath back as Carmilla went and fiddled with the laptop to send music played through the speakers around the room that usually played something with a good rhythm for whatever fitness class was running in here, not the olde time waltz music that Carmilla had found.

Carmilla walked over to Laura now the music was playing and held her hand out. Laura took it and Carmilla pulled her gently into ballroom hold, her hand on Laura’s back and their bodies tight together.

“Relax and keep your body with mine, don’t think about your feet too much and don’t worry about what I am doing,” Carmilla said. 

Laura nodded and took a deep breath, “The music sounds fast.”

“You got it,” Carmilla reassured her.

Laura nodded again, Carmilla counted them in and stepped forward as Laura stepped back and it wasn’t perfect, but it was exhilarating and they span round the room and Laura didn't have time to care about direction or placing her feet, she could just let them move as she had practiced and just follow Carmilla’s movements and the guidance from her hips and the hand on Laura’s back and they span and span and they floated and whipped round, completely in sync, repeating the sequence Carmilla had taught her to take them round and round the room.

Then Laura’s brain thought about her feet for a second and she stumbled. Carmilla caught her.

“Easy there,” Carmilla said, steadying Laura back onto her feet.

Laura clung onto Carmilla’s upper arms and looked at her, “That was fun,” she gasped. Carmilla looked down at her and reached to smooth several wayward strands of hair off Laura’s face. Laura could feel how hard Carmilla was breathing and how close they were pressed and she leaned forwards to kiss Carmilla, sliding her hands from Carmilla’s upper arms to round her back to pull her in closer and tighter. Carmilla’s pulled her closer as well, her hand tangling in her hair and the other going round Laura’s waist.

Laura pulled back from the kiss. “I can see why that was like sex in sixteen ninety eight,” she said.

“Yeah?” Carmilla said, moving the hand from Laura’s hair to stroke her finger tips along Laura’s jaw.

“Yeah,” Laura agreed, “that was, wow, I could barely hear the music, but it was through everything and it was just movement and so right and I just needed to let go into you and trust you.”

Carmilla tilted Laura’s head back into the kiss with her fingers and then trailed her fingers down Laura’s neck and to her shoulder. Laura’s fingers teased at the edge of Carmilla’s shirt, sliding her fingertips under the edge of the fabric to press against Carmilla’s bare skin. The kiss got more passionate and Laura slid her hand right up under Carmilla’s shirt and round onto her stomach as Carmilla pulled Laura tight into her with a hand on her rear and ran her other hand from Laura’s shoulder down, over her breast and round her ribs.

“Woah,” Laura said, pulling back, “What do you say we….relocate?”

“Don’t want another go at the dancing,” Carmilla teased.

“Another night,” Laura said, “I feel like mastering the Viennese waltz is enough for one evening”

"Cupcake, I have bad news."

"What?"

"That was a very slow Viennese waltz."

**Author's Note:**

> Waltzing is fun.
> 
> I noticed that both times Laura and Carmilla dance in the show Carmilla takes the follow position and Laura takes the lead. 
> 
> This may be based on some of my experiences of learning to dance


End file.
